Ps: So I feel like I have to say something Feng Shui-ey because of my title… Asia Bankers Club has been getting prof Joe Choo, president of Malaysian Institute of Geomancy Science (MINGS) to speak in Singapore and Hong Kong (no flying for me and She Who Hates Travel but I attended the HK one (link to event photos here)which btw was on the same day as Rockstar’s Sports Day before Little Miss decided that was really too much of Mummee not being home and screamed the place down til I got back).

When you have 5 minutes to get out the door after getting the baby's dinner who knew the easiest thing to do is throw on a pantsuit? (Max & Co suit, Burberry shirt and bag)

They had planned for 100 people but it ballooned into 400, by which point the wait list was just making people too pissy and so they moved everything into bigger rooms (still ran out of chairs) which goes to show how serious people are about Feng Shui here HANG ON it’s not like everyone must believe it, but if you live in HK where newer buildings don’t even have fourth floors, you will find even if you don’t believe, you have to adjust for most of the population you deal with believing. As evidenced by the many obviously foreign faces at the talk that night, including some Caucasian analysts who regularly go on CNBC to talk markets. (I think even if you are very confident in your view, you will try to avoid saying something horribly “against” Feng Shui here).

Speaking of which, they get Feng Shui masters to check dealing rooms and RM desks too… A friend of mine lost a family member several years back, then went on business trip to Taiwan – when she came back her desk had been tricked out with charms and she was asked to rearrange things following what the master had said after examining her desk while she was away. And this is NOT an Asian name bank, it was the private banking arm of one of the most powerful European investment banks. (Heck, my beloved ex-boss from Brisbane became very serious about Feng Shui from living here too… He once described how a night dealer freaked out one evening because the wind chimes above his desk (for Feng Shui purposes – obviously the only draft they catch might be from aircon) started ringing one night. My ex-boss couldn’t get the dealer to stay in his seat (can you imagine, with NY still open) and the next morning the chimes were on the floor. After that no one would sit there and they eventually renovated and put a pillar there.)

Back at the Feng Shui talk Prof Choo is talking about auspicious colors; I mention just as an observation of how seriously people were taking it because I was at the back in anticipation of having to leave early, and so was sitting among a bunch of Europeans who were taking notes and updating late-coming friends about green and blue being the luckiest colors for 2013. (Suggested iPhone case colors).

Pps: Never buy a green hat for a male here. I’m not sure that’s Feng Shui, but apparently it implies a cuckolded husband and can be considered hugely offensive…

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About Aileen

I blog about living and raising my son in Hong Kong - where toddlers have entrance interviews, parents keep test score spreadsheets, private school debentures can trade for more than half a million USD. Raising Rockstar's the most important thing I'll ever do. We show our true colors by the choices we make in bringing up our children. My blog is a message to my toddler son, about what the world and his parents are like today - for when he becomes a teenager and knows everything.

Such a small small world! Joe Choo is my neighbour! She lives in e condo unit next to me! Feeling alil 7 degrees of separation if that makes any sense at all. LOL. Gong hei fatt choy Ai Leen! Wishing you, Kings n the 2 Rockstars a Sssuper Snake Year!

http://raisingrockstar.com Aileen

HAHAHA Wow that is a real coincidence!! Another strange thing – the two times in couple months that someone has used the term “degrees of separation” in a conversation with me, the speaker has been a Malaysian living in Malaysia (I think KL area?). No one else has ever used that expression with me Hmm… Is it a popular expression there now?

Gong Hei Fatt Choy to you too, have a sssssuper year indeed!

Will link the pics for prof’s event in HK later, I couldn’t find it on the ABC site yet when I first posted so didn’t do it yet…

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The story about the wind chimes ringing on its own is so scary. Like a ghost story.

Happy Chinese New Year to you and your family! Kong Hei Fatt Choy! May the year of the snake bring happiness, good health and prosperity to you and your family!

May the Asia Bankers Club prosper even more in the year of the snake!

http://raisingrockstar.com Aileen

Thank you dear! May there be good health, wealth and prosperity for you and your family too! Wah you so fast I’m still a bit not ready with wishes yet

There is an episode on West Wing whereby after a member of staff dies in a car accident, one of the many doors in the Oval keeps swinging open for no apparent reason. Even more eerily, it was a door that swung outward (i.e. if you say wind blows, the wind has to blowing from inside the office rather than outside). Like ghost story right?

It later turned out that as the latch got older and less secure, the right combination of doors opening within the west wing created a wind tunnel that applied enough pressure on the old latch to swing it open.

But (in the show) as the President initially sat there contemplating seemingly insurmountable odds against his running for re-election, the character portrayed as a Catholic who believed he was being punished for a huge deceit, he for a short time saw the dead staff member in that.

Two things:
1) We see what we believe or want to see (and at some point I shud probably dig up the old articles re the extent to which our minds can trick us), and

2) It can be pretty darn useful! (To spur yourself on to achieving something in which case y not if it’s a dead staff member who talks you into picking yourself up and trying again)

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To My Son And Daughter. For when they become teenagers who know everything. Because we show our true colors- our beliefs, our prejudices, our weaknesses, our hopes – by the choices we make in raising our rockstars. “Mummy” is an honor that ranks higher than Derivatives Structuring Head, Big Fat Investment Bank. Higher than CEO, Biggest Conglomerate Ever. ‘Cause a long time ago, even they had Mummies.